Couldn't help myself. Made an impulse buy on an odd turntable

aaharvel

Anyone ever hear of the Pioneer PL-X5?
It's a turntable that looks and opens like a cd-changer.
I saw it and had to have it so I bought it on impulse. It has a metal shell, new Vivid belt and almost new pioneer 220 stylus/cartridge.
I bought a TCC-TC-750 pre-amp with RIAA eq and 85 s/n ratio to mate with it.
All in all I spent $200 for everything.
Until today, I had never seen anything like this and the first time I saw it I couldn't stop thinking how well it would match with my H/K receiver.

Anyone ever seen one of these?
Or heard one of these?

Willow

That's sweet, with my current set up this type would work as I have no room on a top shelf.

Let me know what you think of it once you have time to play around.

aaharvel

yeah let's just hope that tc-750 pre-amp isn't TOO much of a bottleneck however.

I can't find any information on this model on the net, so I emailed Pioneer. Maybe they can shed some light on the production year, etc. It does look fantastic.

reeltrouble1

I saw one once in my local Good Will but she was pretty beat up. I think Vinyl made a sort of last ditch effort to sustain itself with some of this style gear before cd bowled the market over. I have a bunch a vinyl albums proudly stately they are "digital" huh??? All vinyl had to do wait apparently. More TT's were sold last year than in decade. Its a bit of pain but man some of the tones I hear can just make you shite yourself.

I would check it out real good, use some not so great albums, those mechanical tray mechinisms look like they could get out of alignment and so on.

Anyway, enjoy. Try to check out the stylus with a scope if you can.

RT1

Willow

A while back some in FM had one for sale.I thought about it but didn't jump on it.

madmax

Cool! One way to look at it is that most low cost tables don't sound that good so I think you made a good decision by at least getting one which is somewhat unique. Let us know what it sounds like!
madmax

aaharvel

i will, and will be following reel's advice regarding the product. I'm no vinyl purist, I just want decent sound. To be honest, it was the looks of the thing that sold me. The owner had taken about 10pics of the thing and in all honesty it looks mint. Somebody loved it.

btw, anyone know how much this thing weighs (metal encasing) and or the time Period of this? I was thinking late 70's to early 80's but can't be sure.

aaharvel

1982 according to a pioneer rep.
nice customer service.

danger boy

that's pretty cool. Pioneer in that era made some good products.. so i'm sure it's probably above average in sound too. but you sometimes never know with vintage gear.

hook that sucker up and let us know what you find out. Do you own any vinyl?

aaharvel

danger boy wrote:

Do you own any vinyl?

Rock & Singer/Songwriter
Fleetwood Mac:Tusk, Rumors
Beach Boys: Endless Summer
The Carpenters: 1969-1973
Lynrd Skynrd: Gold & Platinum
Eagles: Greatest Hits (71-75), The Long Run
Jimmy Buffet: 'You Had To Be There Live'
CCR: Self Titled
James Taylor: Self Titled
Star Wars Soundtrack
FM Soundtrack
Urban Cowboy Soundtrack
Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell
John Denver: Greatest Hits
Elton John: Self Titled
Dan Fogelburg: Greatest Hits, The Innocent Age, Twins Sons from Different Mothers (w/Tim Weisburg), Captured Angel, Nether Lands, Home Free

Beatles
Meet the Beatles
The Beatles Second Album
Something New
Beatles '65

Classical:
Tchaikovosky's Swan Lake, Nutcracker, 5th Symphony (Bernstein)
Beethoven: Moonlight, Pathetique, and Les Adieux Sonatas (Bernstein)
Beethoven: Pastorial Symphony, Concerto #4 (Rubinstein)
Chopin: Concerto No.1, Chopin Waltzes (Rubinstein)
Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf, Symphony No.5 (Leinsdorf)
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Leinsdorf)
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben "A Hero's Life" (Leinsdorf)
Mozart: The Jupiter Symphony (Leinsdorf)
Bartok: The Orchestra Concerto (Leinsdorf)
Brahms: Symphony No.1 & No.2 (Leinsdorf)
Dvorak: "Symphony From The New World" (Toscanini)
Schubert: The Great Symphony (Toscanini)
Strauss: The Blue Danube (Ormandy)
Appalachian Spring (Copland)
Stokowski: London Symphony Orchestra (Scheherazade)
Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique (Munch)

The Beatles LP's and Classical LP's were hand-me-downs from mom.

I bought the rest. There's a store just down the street that sells used LP's for $2-$5 a pop.

audiobliss

Awesome. It certainly looks unique. I can imagine several scenarios in which that front-loading design would come in handy.

unc2701

Willow wrote:

A while back some in FM had one for sale.I thought about it but didn't jump on it.

Dammit, guys. Now everyone wants one... I tried dropping the model above this one for $70 on the FM and no one was interested. Forced me to sell it on Ebay for $230

Anyhow, mine was super slick- in addition to the high WAF front loading aspect, it could detect where the tracks started & stopped and be programmed to play certain tracks. Not very Hi-Fi, but definitely very convenient. Clearly the last ditch effort to compete with CD.

audiobliss

^^ That sounds like the ultimate convenient TT.

aaharvel

Got it and just hooked it up in the last hour. I'm shocked that there's not a spot on this thing. Even the buttons have been cleaned with a mini-brush. I mainly bought it for functionality and for looks but eh... damn. This thing also sounds good Very good actually. It looks as if it's got a diamond stylus. No skipping, no vibrations, nothing. This thing is heavy. Much better than most 5lb. turntables i'm used to listening to.

I'm impressed. From an audio standpoint, my expectations are exceeded. According to Pioneer these things are very rare and to find one in this condition is just silly. Who knows maybe it'll be valuable in 20 years.